More Dog Whispering

The Chronicle ran an article on the local Berkeley dog whisperer, Ian Dunbar, and his rivalry with the guy with the TV show I blogged about before, Cesar Millan. It seems that the tone of that NYTimes article was a reflection of a lot of dog training people:

Dr. Patricia McConnell, author of "For the Love of a Dog: Understanding Emotion in Your Best Friend" and the animal behaviorist on Animal Planet's "Petline," goes as far as to say that Millan has put dog training back 20 years. "Dunbar is a world authority," she says, "and he should be the one with the celebrity."

If that's not enough, we have the theory that Millan's popularity is a backlash against PC-ness:

Jean Donaldson, director of dog training at the SFSPCA and author of "Culture Clash," a book about the human-dog relationship, views the history of dog training in pre- and post-Dunbar eras. "Ian is the man," she says. "He revolutionized the field." She, too, thinks Millan is tapping into something deeper in the current culture -- and his machismo is only part of it. "It's a backlash against political correctness," she says. "People are angry and life is frustrating and [when] someone tells them it's all about dominating something smaller and weaker? They'll go for that."

Quite the little dog fight.